TREACHERY.
With a shout to Carl to follow, Matt plunged through the doorway, and
was met with a terrific blow that threw him, half stunned, backward
against Carl. Carl tripped over a box, grabbed at Matt to save himself,
and both fell sprawling. Before they could get up four Chilians were
upon them, holding them by main strength.
"_Que quiere?_" cried Matt, as he struggled.
One of the Chilians had a rope. None of them answered Matt's question,
but proceeded without delay to put lashings on his hands and feet. Carl
was treated in a similar manner, and thus the two chums were rendered
absolutely powerless to do anything for themselves, or for their
friends. And where were their friends? they asked themselves.
As soon as Matt and Carl were secured, the leader of the treacherous
Chilians left the torpedo room with one of the others.
"Here iss a fine keddle oof fish?" wheezed Carl. "Der nexdt dime vat ve
see some fellers on der pottom oof a poat, py shinks ve vill leaf dem
vere dey are. Ach, vat a lot oof sgoundrels!"
"Hello, there!" came the voice of Gaines from the tank room. "Did that
bullet do you any damage, Matt?"
"No. Where are you, Gaines?"
"Here, in the tank room, lashed hard and fast. We heard a noise, and
Speake went up to investigate. He didn't come back. Those rascally
Chilians have turned on us."
"Who was in the periscope room?"
"Dick."
"Any one else below with you?"
"No. I'm alone."
"You don't know anything about Glennie or Clackett?"
"Not a thing."
Just then Glennie entered the torpedo room. The big Chilian walked
behind him with a revolver pressed to the back of the ensign's neck.
Glennie's hands were bound.
"Here's a go, Matt!" muttered the ensign angrily.
"How did it happen?" asked Matt.
"I ought to have kept awake, I suppose, but I was so deuced tired I
dropped off and slept like a log. The big Chilian got my revolver while
I slept, and then the four of them laid hold of me, kept me from giving
an alarm, and got ropes on my wrists and ankles. After that they gagged
me. Then one of them went out into the periscope room. Dick was on
guard there, and the Chilian asked for a drink--making motions to let
Dick know what he pretended to want. Dick couldn't tell him how to get
the water, so he started to get it himself. He had hardly turned his
back before the Chilian downed him with a cowardly blow from behind.
He was tied and dragged into the steel room by two of the Chilians,
the other two staying behind to deal with Speake, who came up to see
what was going on. Speake was taken by surprise and captured, and then
Clackett. Speake and Clackett were hauled neck and heels into the steel
room. I wonder if you can imagine how I felt, lying there on the cot,
bound and gagged, and able to look through the door and see what was
going on?"
"I can imagine it, Glennie," said Matt. "We're in a fix, all right, but
we're not going to let that discourage us. They've brought you down
here to talk, I suppose, and to let us know what their plans are."
The leader of the Chilians had allowed Glennie to speak with Matt,
inferring, no doubt, that he would explain how securely the _Grampus_
had passed into the hands of him and his companions. Now, as Glennie
faced him, the man began to speak.
"He says," translated Glennie, "that he and his friends do not intend
to go to Sandy Point. They are determined that we shall take them to
the River Plate."
"Meppy he iss," struck in Carl, glaring at the leader of the rascally
Chilians, "aber ve're tedermined anodder vay."
"We won't do anything of that kind, Glennie," said Matt, "for the
chances are we'd have trouble with that mysterious steamer. I wonder,"
he added, as a startling thought flashed through his mind, "if the Sons
of the Rising Sun had anything to do with this?"
Glennie shook his head.
"It can't be possible," he answered. "From the little I have overheard
passing between the Chilians, I believe that they are convicts. There's
a penal settlement at Punta Arenas, and I feel sure the rascals escaped
from there. That was a tall yarn they gave us--but they had to explain
their situation on the bottom of that boat and to do it without
exciting our suspicions."
"Well, ask the leader how he expects to get the _Grampus_ to the River
Plate."
Glennie put the question.
"He says," the ensign went on, "that he intends to have you and one
other run the boat."
"Ah!" exclaimed Matt. "Unless we run the boat they won't be able to
carry out their plans. I believe I see a chance here to do something.
We can at least take the boat to the surface--and when we get her there
we'll not sink her again. If we're on the surface, we may have a chance
to communicate with some vessel passing through the strait. Tell him,
Glennie, that there will have to be three of us given our liberty, one
to run the engine, one to run the tanks, and another to steer. I think
that Dick, you, and I are the ones. You can steer and Dick will look
after the tanks. Perhaps the three of us can get the better of these
scoundrels."
"It's my chob to look afder der tanks," put in Carl. "Vy nod led me haf
a handt in der scrimmage? I vould like, pedder as I can tell, to haf
some mix-oops mit der sgoundrels."
Matt, however, did not change his plans. Carl was a good man in a
set-to, if there should be one, but he was apt to lose his head.
Glennie repeated Matt's words to the Chilian, and the latter's face
cleared as if by magic. No doubt he thought that he and his comrades
were to have their own way on the _Grampus_.
"He says all right, Matt," said Glennie, "but he warns us that if we
try to do anything more than obey orders he will shoot. He and his
comrades are determined to reach the River Plate, and are willing to
give up their lives trying to do so."
"If he can take chances," said Matt grimly, "then so can we."
The Chilian gave an order to the three men with him, and the ropes were
taken off the ensign's hands. The three Chilians then led him out of
the room.
"Count on me to do everything that's possible, Matt," called Glennie.
When they were gone, the leader himself cut the cords that bound Matt.
Presenting the revolver, he motioned sternly for Matt to rise and
proceed through the door.
Matt did not intend to rebel just then. He was anxious to get the
_Grampus_ to the surface; then, after that, he and his two friends
could do whatever they thought best.
The Chilians were playing a desperate game; and the fact that they were
obliged to rely on their prisoners for running the boat made it all the
more hazardous.
The young motorist proceeded forthwith to the engine room. Kneeling
behind him, his captor continued to keep him covered with the weapon.
Presently Dick, followed by another Chilian armed with a harpoon that
belonged on the boat, appeared in the tank room.
"Keep your offing, you loafing longshore scuttler!" cried Dick angrily
as the Chilian touched him with the sharp point of the harpoon. "You're
the swab I saved from the wreck, and I wish now I had let you go to the
sharks. Matt, old ship, what do you think of this?"
"Never mind, Dick, what I think of it," answered Matt. "We'll get the
_Grampus_ to the top of the water; then, if they want her sunk again,
you'll find there's something wrong with the ballast tanks. There'll be
three of us free, and perhaps we can do something."
"All I want is half a chance," growled Dick savagely.
"The first thing you do," spoke up Gaines, "cut me loose. That will
make four of us--only one apiece."
The leader of the Chilians said something fiercely. Undoubtedly it was
a command for silence.
"Quiet now, fellows!" warned Matt. "Pretend that you are scared to
death and go ahead with your work."
"Hello, Matt!"
It was the voice of Glennie rattling through the speaking tube.
"What is it?" replied Matt.
"I'm at the wheel. Whenever you're ready you can count on me."
"What's the situation up there?"
"Clackett and Speake are locked in the steel room. Two Chilians are
watching me like cats watching a mouse. One of them has the key to the
room."
"Well," called Matt, "don't do anything until I give the word."
Matt and his chums had the advantage of being able to talk among
themselves without their captors understanding a word. On the other
hand, Glennie could hear what the Chilians were talking about and
communicate it to Matt and his chums.
"Empty the tanks, Dick," called Matt, getting the engine to running
preparatory to switching the power into the propeller.
Dick was a good all-round hand. He had made it his business to learn
the engine so that he could relieve Gaines, and he had also learned how
to use the turbines, the compressed air, to load and fire torpedoes,
to steer, and everything else connected with the operating of the
submarine.
The turbines got to work with a splash, and the _Grampus_ began
slowly to rise. The two Chilians watched operations with considerable
curiosity, although they did not fail to give their closest attention
to Matt and Dick.
Presently the boat was at the surface.
"Great Scott!" exclaimed Glennie, through the tube, "we almost came up
under a canoe with----"
Matt did not hear the rest. Just at that instant there was a fierce
yell from Carl. Matt whirled just in time to see the Dutch boy flinging
himself on the Chilian with the harpoon.
The Chilian, watching Dick, had his back to the door of the torpedo
room, and this gave Carl his chance to make an attack.